A simple story about a community visit: when I picked up this caseload I groaned at the 2 mental health/substance abuser/homeless facilities I got assigned to, having worked with those difficult populations so much and it is more pleasant to just see elderly people that need help.
Going to the biggest facility the first time brought back memories of working at the state hospital, with a lot of very chronically mentally ill folks, mostly men, with not good hygiene, not good dental care, smoking until their fingers are brown, etc.
As time has gone on I have also remembered what I like about working with the mentally ill and interacting with them. Recently I went there to update the assessments of a couple of clients, and have seen most of my clients there now except for a handful. There is always a group of men on the porch smoking, who enjoy me coming and going, enjoy a person who looks them in the eye and smiles and greets, rather than the ususal response to their presence in the general public- one of averted eyes and silence, if not negative verbalizations.
As I left there were a couple of guys I had not met yet sitting out on the porch, smoking, and I smiled and said good-bye, and one said "have a nice afternoon" just as I was noticing the sun breaking out after a day of wind and rain. I said "well, at least the sun has come out and that is good", or something like that, and he looked at me and smiled broadly with gaping holes in his mouth where the teeth were missing, and said "I think it came out just for you".
Sometimes I don't know which of us is having the therapeutic interaction.
This week was the 6 month anniversary of the 9/11 tragedies. We all struggled last September to wrap our minds around what was happening and gather up our senses as we continued on.
As we continue on, we continue with the struggle to understand and to hope we are doing the right thing. Terrorism as we witnessed it six months ago must not happen again, if we can help it. As my Russian friend Margaret said, "We must not entertain that we had some part in their actions- they did it to us". Yes, true, but we must as intellectual beings consider our own actions, both past and future, that may have in any way contributed to the anger and hatred held by the offenders. Our culpability is not lessened simply by saying it is not so. Foreign policy is clearly important for us and for how we are perceived by the rest of humanity. 
The flag has played an important role as symbol in the last 6 months, unlike any times that I remember. The US flag came into being in the later 1700s, when new world colonists rebeled against the attempts of a country way across the ocean to control and profit off of them. There are just causes for peoples to fight for, and unjust governments for peoples to rebel against. Let us hope that we can tell the difference between terrorists and those men who, like our country's founders, fight for their freedom. And, as we seek to protect ourselves, let us pray for the wisdom to differentiate between safety and freedom.
"A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both and deserve neither." - Thomas Jefferson
Neil Young's new CD "Are You Passionate?" is due out in stores April 9th- preview is available on buzztone via KMTT radio station site- the whole CD!
Fats Domino's classic R&B sounds come to mind occassionally- check out site linked to his picture, listen to his songs, and especially check out "Blueberry Hill"- or some like to call it "Strawberry Hill". Enjoy...
In the last year I saw a video/movie with Chris Rock, where he dies by "mistake"- it wasn't his "time" and so God sent him "back" and he comes back in someone else's body (who's "time" it was). Chris had a good line in it-- "Why is it when something bad happens to me it is fate, but when something good happens to me it's just luck? Isn't anything good ever supposed to happen to me?"-- the good and the bad, and out of the bad strength and wisdom arrive. Don't get a lot of wisdom from the good it seems. Hmmm, I should be wiser than crap after the last couple of years- actually I sometimes feel wise, other times feel like a jackass, must be the yin and the yang thing again.
Yes, it is the end of March, the Lioness is leaving. We go onward into the future, seeking our way, seeking our "right" way, looking for the laughing sun.
See you in April...
